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Monday, August 10, 2015

Blog Tour: Slasher Girls and Monster Boys: Stefan Bachmann

Today on Winterhaven Books we are participating in the blog tour for Slasher Girls and Monster Boys hosted by Penguin! This is one of my most anticipated books of the fall and I am beyond thrilled to join in this amazing tour! For my stop I have the talented Stefan Bachmann as a guest! He gives us his rundown of scariest movies!

I love scary movies. While I'm watching them I'll be like "WHY, STEFAN?" and I've been known to turn off movies in a fright and go like. . . watch The Little Mermaid or something, but in general, they're the best. There's a healthy dose of historical horror in this list (4 out of 10? That's a healthy dose, I think?) because it's my favorite, and also the genre of my short story in the anthology. That story's called "M", and involves murder and large country houses and creepy singing children and a blind, mystery-solving protagonist. I hope you like it! And all the other marvelous authors' stories, too! Without further ado, here are my most terrifying movies that no doubt subconsciously inspired some the stuff I write:

1. Event Horizon
I've only seen this once, but that was enough, thank you. There's a scene where the main character is crawling through a tiny, claustrophobic passageway in a deserted spaceship, and there may or may not be an interdimensional demon in the passage with him, and the tension that ratchets up is actually painful. (Also, it's only marginally less silly than it sounds, but you won't care because you'll be terrified.)

2. The Ring
That gif alone freaks me out. Ghost-Girl, you need to get a haircut. Also, stop crawling out of TVs. Stop calling people you don't know and threatening to kill them within seven days. Please. (It's so much scarier than it sounds, honestly.)

3. 28 Days Later
I watched this when I was 8 with my siblings. I do not know why we thought that was a good idea. I remember when it was done I was so, so relieved to be living in a merry little green valley in Switzerland where there were no zombies.

4. Pulse
The Japanese original - I have not seen the US remake. It's verrrrry, very quiet at first, and it also involves subtitle reading, but it's one of those scary movies that creeps into mind and curls up there and just kind of subtly terrifies you forever. It's also about the isolation that can come from technological advancements, which is a bonus, because who doesn't like social commentary with their horror?

5. The Innocents
This movie is from the 1950's, loosely based on The Turn of the Screw. I went into it expecting not very much, because for some reason I though people in the 50's did not know what scary was. Well, they did. There's one scene that involves nothing more than a face peering in through a window that is scarier than all the SAW movies combined.

6. Psycho
Again, expected polite horribleness, was greeted with murder and mayhem. Also, I love the music. People everywhere recognize the shrieking violins during the shower scene, but listen to the overture. It's so good.

7. The Sixth Sense
This doesn't really need an explanation. You've probably seen it. I like how it's almost a calm family drama sometimes and then BAM! Dead person inside tent fort. I'm kind of in awe of Shyamalan for that one. TENT FORTS ARE SAFE HAVENS. He knows this. That's why there's a dead person in there. To traumatize everyone.

8. Pan's Labyrinth
This movie is artistically/visually/musically one of the most marvelous movies ever, and I'm not sure it's actually scary, but it is quite gory in places and I still can't watch it all the way through without looking away in grossed-out-ed-ness. Mostly due to a certain straight razor. Also, this guy:

9. The Village
I know, I know, everyone hated it, it's not scary, the twist was lame, blabla, but I DISAGREE. I love it, and the music's pretty and the acting's good and the cinematography is flawless.

10. The Others
It's about a mother and her two light-sensitive children living with some servants in a vast old Victorian house. It's a very classy sort of scary movie, and there's a twist at the end that is quite haunting, haha, oh, the puns.

PS: I have not seen The Shining, did not think The Conjuring was particularly scary, did not think the Blair Witch Project was scary at all, and fell asleep during a marathon watching of the first three Paranormal Activities so I'm not sure if those were scary. Just. . . case you were wondering why they're not on the list. :)

Thanks for having me, Winterhaven Books!

Stefan thanks so much for stopping by! Now I have to go scrub my computer of all these creepy images!! That Pan's Labrinth picture is staring at me!!

So my wonderful readers, what movies are on your top ten scariest list??

1 comment:

I like all of these and have seen all of them too. The Others sure had a twist, didn't it?! I loved Sixth Sense. It's another one with twisted clues you have to watch for, like the red door knob. And The Ring. My son and I were watching it in the dark, waiting for the pizza delivery guy. Forgot about him, until he knocked on the door and scared us into next year. LOL